Modeling the effect of COVID-19 disease on the cardiac function: a computational study

Background: The effect of COVID-19 on the cardiac function and on the vascular system increases the morbidity and mortality of infected subjects with cardiovascular diseases. Objectives. To provide preliminary results on cardiac global outcomes (such as cardiac output, ventricular pressures) obtained by means of computational models in plausible scenarios characterized by COVID-19. Methods: We considered a lumped parameters computational model of the cardiovascular system, which models, from the mechanical point of view, the systemic and pulmonary circulations, the four cardiac valves and the four heart chambers, through mathematical equations of the underlying physical processes. To study the effect of COVID-19, we varied the heart rate, the contractility and the pulmonary resistances in suitable ranges. Results: Our computations on individuals with both otherwise normal and impaired cardiac functions revealed that COVID-19 worsen cardiac function, as shown by a decrease of some cardiac biomarkers values such as cardiac output and ejection fraction. In the case of existing impaired cardiac function, the presence of COVID-19 lead to values outside the normal ranges. Conclusions: Computational models revealed to be an effective tool to study the effect of COVID-19 on the cardiovascular system. Such effect could be significant for patients with impaired cardiac function. This is especially useful to perform a sensitivity analysis of the hemodynamics for different conditions.